For Your Post Assignment:

I am interested in hearing about your reactions to the novel and what exactly has stood out to you thus far.

I want you to select a brief passage from the chapters you are reading this weekend of about 3 to 7 lines. This should be a passage that seems significant, strange, provocative, problematic, or otherwise interesting to you in some way. This passage, for example, might:

• Provide a rather striking and/or telling portrait of our narrator (David).
• Provide a rich description of a particular setting or character.
• Reveal on the part of David or another character particular attitudes toward queerness/homosexuality.
• Offer a striking image or set of images (In other words, are there any places where you feel the language of the novel allows you to see vividly a particular thing, place, character, or something else?).
• Relate to any one of the themes we have discussed thus far: happiness, loss, mourning, melancholia, and more.
• Do something else you find interesting and worthy of discussion!

After typing out the passage in full, please compose approximately two paragraphs of analysis, with each paragraph containing at least six to seven sentences. In your analysis, I want you to explore your chosen passage, explicating what exactly about this passage seems to be so significant.

(E.g. What was the image that you found so striking? Why? How exactly does your passage relate to our discussion of happiness? What does this passage reveal about our narrator? What kind of portrait of queerness does your passage offer? Might you relate something from your passage to Freud’s model of mourning vs. melancholia?)

Submit your response below as a comment.

COMPLETE BY TUESDAY, 9/26 @ 5 PM.